Strymon Flint Pedal Review

It’s been fun to watch
Strymon confound analog
dogmatists over the last few
years. The company’s Blue Sky
reverb and El Capistan delay are
elegant, strikingly accurate DSP
takes on difficult-to-emulate
analog effects. And only the
most-curmudgeonly luddite
would fail to be impressed
by how alive and authentic
Strymon’s effects can sound.

With the introduction of
the Flint, Strymon set its sights
on the most ardent of analog
purists. After all, the union of
reverb and tremolo is the cherry
on top of some very classic
amps—and as a consequence,
about the only effects a lot of
analog devotees will touch. Not
surprisingly, the Flint nails those
vintage tones. But the Flint is
not strictly an exercise in vintage
simulation. It also enables delicious
combinations of vintage
colors and contemporary tones
that invite creative exploration.

Spell It Out in Black
and White
Like most Strymon pedals, the
Flint is thoughtfully designed
and packs a lot of functionality
in a compact layout that’s intuitive
and not too cluttered. The
two knobs, toggle switch, and
footswitch on the left control
the tremolo section, and the
toggle moves between voices for
a harmonic dual-band filtering
tremolo (like on an old Fender
6G5 Pro Amp), a brownface-like
tube-bias-style tremolo,
and a photocell-style trem that
evokes a blackface Fender. The
three knobs, toggle switch,
and footswitch to the right are
dedicated to the reverb section,
where the toggle switches
between a ’60s tank-style voice,
a ’70s solid-state plate-style
reverb, and an ’80s digital rack-like
voice. The three knobs control
mix, color (or tone), and
decay rate.

If you want more power
to tailor your sound, four of
the controls have secondary
functions including a +/- 3 dB
boost/cut for each channels,
tap-tempo divisions (from 1/16
to 1/4), and reverb/tremolo
effect order.

Surfing Space,
Shape Shifting
There’s no way to do justice to
the breadth of this pedal’s capabilities
in a review of this length.
But one of the most fundamental—and satisfying—merits of
the Flint is that you don’t have
to dig too deep to reap sonic
rewards. The Flint—outside any
considerations of analog authenticity—just plain sounds good.
Set up any of the three tremolo
settings at medium intensity and
about a third of full speed, add
a little reverb, and an otherwise
no-frills amp like a Champ will
be come a mesmerizing dream
machine that makes an E minor
chord sound like blissful slumber
in Elysium.

The tremolo pulses
are wonderfully organic
whether they come at you
with choppy intensity or
in softer swells. The ’61
harm setting has a warbly,
underwater, vibrato-like quality
that can get delightfully queasy
at high-intensity. And no matter
how surgically you listen,
it’s impossible to discern digital
pollution or jarring right angles.
It’s all lovely, fractal, blooming
stuff—tinged with hints of
phase and pitch shifting that
sounds great at intense settings.
The ’63 tube setting generates
more regularly contoured swells
that sound detailed at slow
speeds. The ’65 photo setting
is the most dramatic tremolo
flavor—gloriously choppy
and dramatic, and perfect for
everything from Johnny Marr’s
churning “How Soon is Now”
riff to the slow, narcotic pulse
of the Viscounts’ “Harlem
Nocturne” or Spacemen 3’s opiated instruments.

The reverbs are similarly
intoxicating, nuanced
takes on their inspirations.
The ’60s setting
reproduces the fractured,
irregular echoes
and clanging high-end
saturation you get when
mix, tone, and decay
are set high and long—perfect for dripping wet
surf tones. The ’70s setting lends
an unmistakable shag-carpet studio
ambiance at low levels. But
at longer decay times, it works
with slow and intense tremolo
settings to generate airy and
very convincing rotating speaker
textures. The ’80s setting, meanwhile,
is the ticket to Lanois and
Eno’s atmospheric states.

The Verdict
There’s plenty of precedent for
the reverb/tremolo tandem.
But what Strymon does with
the recombinant possibilities
of these particular flavors is
inspired. The Flint can move
from gutter-tough noir moods,
to sun-bleached surfscapes, to
time-and-space-stretching ambience
with a few simple tweaks.
The ease with which you can
access the full range of sounds and tone-shaping capabilities
is a minor masterpiece of
stompbox-interface engineering
too. But above all, it’s the quality
and authenticity of tones that
impresses. Strymon’s work on
this front will no doubt delight
DSP believers and those that
listen with open ears. But this
pedal is bound the change the
minds of more than a few analog
purists, and that may be the ultimate
testimonial to how good
the Flint can be.

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